General news

Robot with a Knife wins Food Processing award

20 Oct 2017

On October 19th, Marel’s "Robot with a Knife" won the prestigious Food Processing Award 2017. The integration of RoboBatcher Flex with I-Cut 122 for intelligent fillet batching turned out to be the winner in the category "Robotics and Automation".

The Food Processing Awards are designed to acknowledge and recognize companies for their excellence and innovation within the food engineering sector.

From nominee to finalist

The entries weren’t limited to the meat industry, but involved the entire British food market. Organizer Food Processing Magazine has been collecting nominations over the past few months to hand out awards in nine categories in total. A judging panel chose the finalists, after which voting could start. The prize winners were disclosed during the awards ceremony at the Hilton hotel, Coventry UK, on October 19th. Product Marketing Manager Mikkel Hougaard Andersen represented Marel at the event to receive the award.

Impressive

When it’s about "Robotics and Automation" hardly any other concept in the food industry applies better to this qualification than the Robot with a Knife. For people not involved in the poultry industry, it is always impressive to see the fast robotic arms of the RoboBatcher at work, especially when multiple grippers are co-producing one tray of batched products.

The jury and internet voters were also keen on the ability of the Robot with a Knife to reduce product giveaway. Instead of cutting chicken fillets to one ideal average, the award winning concept focuses on assessing individual breast fillets and only cuts what is needed. This allows for selective cutting, based on recipe requirements. Whenever a fillet enters the I-Cut 122, it is scanned and its weight is calculated. This information is sent to the RoboBatcher Flex, which decides what happens next, based on the recipes provided.

Marel is the leading global provider of advanced equipment, systems and services to the fish, meat and poultry industries. Our brand is among the most respected in the industry. We offer the convenience of a single source to meet our customers’ every need. With offices and subsidiaries in over 30 countries and a global network of more than 100 agents and distributors, we work side-by-side with our customers to extend the boundaries of food processing performance.